I promise, forever
by DuringMyDarkestHour
Summary: AU: Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia have been friends since childhood, but as they get older and their personalities develop they are pulled apart, will they ever find their way back to each other? or is this fate. Rated M for much later chapters.
1. Yeah right

**A/N**:** My plan was to finish or at least add to my current fanfics, but then my mind decided to storm me with new ideas instead, and therefore my muse to finish the others has just left me high and dry.. I'll try and finish them ASAP, thank you for bearing with me, and thank you for the reviews;**

**This is set in an AU way, up until the future.. when of course the BAU comes into their lives, but for the most part, it stays completely AU;**

**Disclaimer: I own no rights to Criminal Minds, or their characters;**

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Life for a young Derek Morgan couldn't get any worse, not only did his father die in front of him a few years back, but now he was being molested by an older man who he looked up to, and he had no one to turn to, he felt more alone now than ever before. The one person who kept him sane and would hold him during this time was his best friend Penelope Garcia. Derek and Penelope met when she was 6, and he was 8 and they quickly became inseparable. They would go around to each other's houses for sleepovers and tea, their families were drawn together by them and by now were great friends, Penelope was there for him when his dad was shot too, and each and every year she would hold his hand and walk with him to put flowers on his dads grave, the same time every year. On this particular day when Derek needed Penelope most, she wasn't around... her family decided to take a last minute vacation back to Boston where Penelope was originally from. So to get through the pain, Derek sent up silent prayers to God to save him from Carl Buford, and held onto his happiest memory with Penelope, his light.

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**April 7th 1986**

**She was an angel; He may have only been 8 years old, but Derek Morgan knew an angel when he saw one, her curly blonde locks falling down past her shoulders, her rosy red cheeks and her cute little red dress with flowers on it. The moving truck was being unloaded and the family moving in seemed to be bright, colourful and odd. Derek sat on his bike and took his helmet off revealing his curly black locks to the World. He eyed the family moving in and could easily tell they had a strong bond like him and his family, they were all happy and at ease with one another, laughing and chatting as they moved the boxes into the house.**

**Derek was so caught up watching them move in, that he was startled when a hand tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around to come face to face with the angel he had seen. ''Hello'' whispered a sweet and innocent voice, ''H-hi, I'm Derek'' he stuttered, ''I'm Penelope, Penelope Garcia.'' She smiled sweetly; Derek smiled back but remained silent. ''I was wondering if you wanted to come and play tag with me and my brothers?'' she asked kindly. Derek looked at her kind, inviting eyes and nodded ''I'd love to Penelope.'' Derek followed Penelope into her garden and was greeted by her four brothers and her mother and step-father and the friendship began.**

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That particular memory always managed to make him smile, no matter what happened to him, it was the day he had met an angel. Ok so maybe he hadn't been the greatest best friend for the last year, but that didn't mean he doesn't care for Penelope, Penelope is the only female outside of his family that he does care for, other than her mom, besides she understands that he is in his junior year of high school now, and she's a freshman, times are tough and he doesn't have a lot of room on his schedule for anything really, he has football practice most weeknights and weekends he hangs out with the team, and then he has to squeeze in time for homework, and that only leaves him about 6 hours to watch television... maybe Penelope had become a minority in his life right now, but that didn't change the fact that they were best friends and that they were always there for each other... right?

Just a week later Derek was singing a whole new tune, when Penelope called round after returning from her vacation. ''Not now Penelope! Can't you see I'm busy?'' Derek practically spat at her, what was his problem? All she did was say how much she missed him and that she had bought him a gift. Derek got up off of the couch in the garage where his friends were sat sneakily drinking beers and giggling amongst themselves. Derek motioned for Penelope to follow him. When they were around the corner Derek turned to face her. ''Penelope, you can't be here right now... I'm with the boys; I told you they find you erh... eccentric, I'll call you kay?'' and with that he was back in the garage and slammed the door down leaving Penelope stood by herself outside.

Penelope let out a deep breath and turned to leave, she was used to this kind of behaviour from Derek by now, but it still hurt to know she came in... Last? In his life, what happened to 'I Promise forever..'

**July 19th 1988**

**Penelope was sat on top of the hill next to the lake with Derek, who was still trying to make her laugh by doing silly little things, he was pulling faces, and falling over just for the fun of it, it was a hot sunny day and Derek and his family had decided to go for a picnic, they had of course invited Penelope to join them, since their son had took a liking to her and they had gotten used to her company as it was as frequent as every single day, almost like a third daughter in a matter of months. Desiree was only three and Sarah was ten so neither of them was 'hanging out' with Derek and Penelope.**

**''Look, look Penelope, look at me now... watch'' Derek yelled as he ran and jumped into the lake in his shorts pulling a stupid face all the way. Penelope sat there giggling to herself making a daisy chain, watching as Derek surfaced on the water shaking his head forcefully to get the water out of his ears. ''Are you coming in?'' he called over, Penelope shook her head and carried on making her daisy chain as Derek splashed about in the water. Derek watched her for a while before getting out of the water and sitting next to her. ''How are you doing that?'' he asked pointing to the daisy chain in her hand. ''It's easy, look I'll show you.'' She replied. For the next twenty minutes the two of them remained seated on the grass amongst the daisies plucking at them making daisy chains. ''finished.'' Penelope smiled at Derek who was still trying to concentrate on putting the daisies together. She looked around and saw a bumblebee on a pink flower, and then she looked at the lake, nice and still now that no one was in it, the sunset soon to be creeping behind it. ''Done.'' Derek excitedly said, thrilled that he had finally been able to complete a daisy chain.**

**The two of them turned to look at each other smiling, ''Penelope I want you to have my daisy chain.'' Derek spoke as he placed it into her hand. ''for friendship'' he added. Penelope smiled down at her hand and giggled, ''then you should have mine too... for friendship.'' As she in turn gave hers to him. ''Come on you two, it's getting kind of late and you'll catch a chill in naught but your wet bathing suits.'' Fran Morgan yelled over to them. Derek and Penelope both stood up holding each other's daisy chains carefully, Derek turned and faced Penelope again before reaching in and giving her a hug. ''We'll always be best friends forever Penelope.'' Derek whispered, ''Forever?'' Penelope smiled up at him. ''I promise, forever.'' He smiled back before running down the hill towards his mom.**

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Yeah they may have been kids, but a promise was a promise and right now Penelope didn't feel like she and Derek had ever been friends, or known each other and deep in her heart she could tell that's what he was trying to make her feel. This place suddenly got a lot lonelier for Penelope Garcia; she kicked a stone and carried on walking down the road back to her street murmuring ''**forever**... yeah right.''


	2. Do it all over again

**A/N: My updates should be quite frequent from here on, but if I do take a break or something happens so that I am unable to update, I will let you know... thank you so much for the reviews, they mean so much to me;**

**And in this story Penelope's parents died when she was 16 not 18.**

**Disclaimer: I own no rights to Criminal Minds, or their characters;**

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The next year went by just the same, Penelope attempting to reconnect with Derek, and him turning a blind eye to her existence, by now he was 18 and her 16, she had of course tried to make his birthday special, but only got to spend about ten minutes with him in total, and he had completely forgotten her birthday. Penelope Garcia could completely and utterly say that 'life sucks' her only friend had forgotten about her and left her all alone.

In some ways Penelope did understand that her and Derek were different, she liked computers and books, and star trek marathons, whereas he liked football, and beers, and cheerleaders, and big parties, but that never stopped them before, so why now?

He had even broken their tradition to always spend Christmas together, instead he was with his girlfriend 'Peyton' which Penelope thought was okay and she understood, but what she didn't understand is when his father's birthday came around he didn't come to her like always, instead he went with some of his friends and Peyton the 'cling on' as she preferred to call her. He had in himself become a jerk that Penelope didn't like, he never even stuck up for her anymore when his friends made fun of her instead he just remained silent.

And then it happened... on a Friday evening five days before the anniversary of his father's death.

**''Derek its Penelope, could you come over, I need you.'' She cried into the phone,**

**''umm... Penelope, now's not really the time, I'm busy.''**

**''Derek please, you know I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important.'' She knew he heard her crying, what was his problem?**

**''I can't, not now I'm busy... erh, 'studying'.''**

**Now she was angry, she knew exactly when he was lying to her. ''your exams were last month Derek, so if you're studying anything it's the girl on her knees in front of you!''**

**''Penelope don't talk about my girl like that, what are you... jealous?''**

**''JEALOUS? No Derek, I just thought that maybe you cared enough to pick up the phone once in a while for me, I rang you 8 times before you picked up, you ignored each one of them, whatever happened to 'forever' huh?''**

**''Penelope that was a stupid promise we made when we were kids, grow up will you?!''**

**''You suck Derek Morgan! I wish we'd never met!''**

And now she was on her way back to Boston with her 4 elder brothers, they were the last words she had ever spoken to Derek, and although he didn't deserve the truth, she was still contemplating on calling him and letting him know the verdict as he rudely declined to listen to her the last time, it was Wednesday now, and she knew that today marked 9 years since the passing of Geoff', and she knew Derek would be with Peyton so after thinking about it long and hard she took her sim card out of her phone and replaced it with the new one she had bought earlier that day, she threw the old one out of the car window and said ''Bye Derek Morgan.''

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Derek picked up a stick from the floor on the way to Penelope's and dragged it along the fences, he and Penelope used to do that a lot when they were younger, today was his dad's anniversary, and he really needed a 'Penelope' hug he longed for her company again, he'd deny it to anyone that asked, including her but he really missed his best friend and he felt guilty about the way he'd been treating her, she didn't deserve that, she was his baby girl, his angel, his light... **forever**, he knew he should of initiated more of the contact between them and cleared some time on his schedule, but he just wanted to get through the last month of high school with his reputation intact. She'd understand right? She knew that he loved her really, and that most of this was just an act for presentation. He could make it up to her; take her on a vacation, just the two of them like old times. 'Baby girl + Baby boy.' And when he went off to College he'd visit her all the time, and have her visit him. They had so much catching up to do, and now that he finally had gotten rid of Peyton, he was finally able to breathe, and he wanted to see the light. Penelope.

As he walked up the street dropping the stick on the floor, he stopped in his tracks when he saw the moving van outside of the Garcia household, just like he had seen when he first met Penelope, but this time it was being loaded rather than unloaded, what was going on?!. He examined the scene like a hawk hoping to find one of the Garcia's to get an understanding on what was happening? Were they moving house? He stopped directly in front of the van and waited, and waited... no Garcia came out of the house, the sun began to go down and the van was almost full. ''Derek Morgan, what a sight for sore eyes.'' A rather unsteady voice called out. Derek turned to around and noticed Mr. Heffner in his front garden watering the plants.

He walked over and stood by the wall, ''Hi Mr. H, you don't know what's going on over there do you?'' he asked curiously. Mr Heffner's smile dropped and was now replaced by a saddened expression, ''nobody told you?'' he asked. Wait, he'd missed something important? No surely Penelope would have told him. He cocked his head to the side and asked ''told me what? What's happened? Is Penelope ok? Have they moved house? Where are they, I mean... when?'' just as Derek stopped rambling, Mrs. Heffner walked out of the house holding an envelope in her hand ''I think this has the answers you're looking for.'' She said placing the envelope in his hands. He was immediately hit with the scent of Penelope; her favourite perfume was all the evidence he needed that this was from her, but why?

''I suggest that you sit down boy, before you read that letter, Penelope knew you would come eventually, I just didn't expect it to be today.'' Derek was so confused, why where they talking in riddles? Nonetheless he sat down on the wall and began to open the letter.

**Derek... baby boy,**

**You stubborn, stubborn man. You don't deserve this letter but since you wouldn't let me explain what happened on Friday, this is the best I can do.**

**Friday, Mom + Phillip were killed in a drunk driver collision. I... I don't know what I'm supposed to do, I have nobody, my brothers think it's best if we move back to Boston, to be close to family, so this is the last time you'll hear from me.**

Derek's eyes immediately began to flood with tears, and he didn't care who saw, Philip was like a second father to him, and Monica was the sweetest, kindest woman you could ever meet, minus Penelope of course who was in fact becoming a young woman. He also noticed splotches on the letter which he could easily identify as his baby's tears, he wasn't there for her, and he felt like the world's worst person right in this moment. She had ALWAYS been there for him, no matter how bad he treated her; she'd always been the one good constant thing in his life, and now she was gone, and he couldn't hold her, or talk to her, or laugh with her, or sing really badly to her, he'd never smell her perfume again, he'd never feel the touch of her soft hand against his, and he could never tell her how sorry he was and how much he loved her. He was an idiot, and he'd only realized too late, he couldn't bear to finish reading the rest of the letter so he shoved it back inside of the envelope, stood up wiped his tears away, nodded his thanks to the Heffner's and left without a word.

He needed to hear her sweet voice, he took out his phone and found her number, he just hoped he wasn't too late, that she would forgive him and... '**This number is no longer in service, please contact your service provider if this problem persists.'**

_**He'd lost her.**_

That night he lay in bed, and he couldn't sleep, he wouldn't eat, he wouldn't talk he just sat that there thinking, he ignored everyone, his friends, his ex, his mom and sisters, he should of felt guilty about not going to his dads grave like usual but he was guilty of so much right now that he couldn't think straight, all of his conscious thoughts were on Penelope and how much she meant to him, and how he had royally screwed up everything in his life.

He knew then, he knew what he was going to do. He was going to become someone she could be proud of, and he would never, ever stop searching for her for as long as he lived, he would find her one day, and when he did everything was going to go back to normal, and they'd be happy** forever**.


	3. The Kiss

**A/N: Here you go lovelies, I should of really mentioned this before now, if there is any errors I am deeply sorry, English is NOT my mother tongue, and I've only learnt how to speak and write in it in the last seven years;**

**This Chapter focuses only on Derek's current situation.;**

**Disclaimer: Still wishing I owned Criminal Minds, still disappointed that I don't;**

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As the months went on, Derek graduated high school and got his football scholarship, as soon as all of that had happened he became distant to everyone, his friends, his family, his main concentration was on finding Penelope, until around the fifth month of searching, and every lead he had on her turned out to be a dead end, he only then realized that she did not want to be found, especially not by him. It only seemed the appropriate thing to do, pushing away everyone else, it was pointless trying to stay in touch with some of the guys who he played football with, and he stopped 'hanging' with the boys like he usually did, he'd be starting College in a couple of weeks and he needed to concentrate on himself, he had no time for hook ups or dating or partying, or anything immature.

Now was his time to prove his worth to Penelope, no she wouldn't be able to see the progress, but maybe if he pushed for his dreams he'd get to see her again, and she'd bring a smile back to his face once again, she always had the power to do that, even on his most down days.

Many of his days were now spent down at the local library checking out books on 'The World's most prolific serial killers' and his particular favorites, anything written by David Rossi about profiling, the rest of his days he was either out running, hitting the bag, lifting weights or locking himself in his room 'studying' as he liked to call it, but even Desiree only being thirteen knew that he cried over Penelope a whole lot. His goal was to graduate College, and go into law enforcement and hopefully one day be a profiler, the real reason he played football was because he needed the scholarship, and he was physically fit and able to play, and well it wasn't a terrible sport to play, and after that he was going to find Penelope, make her proud, show him how proud he is of their friendship, '**maybe more than that in the future'** he thought, and he was going to tell her that when he meant 'forever' it was the real deal, yes he may of told her to grow up when she mentioned it, but in honesty his entire being was focused on that promise, and he wasn't going to break a promise.

Her seventeenth birthday was coming up, he remembered... he felt like a complete ass last year when he had to pretend that he had forgotten her birthday to keep his reputation, in all truth he wanted to take her out, kiss her, and show her his love, but even now he couldn't make it up to her, why did she have to go? He wasn't sure until she had gone that he had fallen in love with her, being only eighteen felt like an odd age to fall in love, but he was dead certain. He'd always believed you could only determine whether you loved someone after you kissed them, but he hadn't kissed Penelope ever...

**Flashback**

**''I will get you Derek!'' Penelope called out as Derek ran away after soaking her with his new water gun, ''I doubt that Penny'' he laughed and ran towards the middle of the garden smirking, when he turned around he was stunned to see that she had gone out of his sight, ''Penelope?'' he called walking back towards the path, Penelope jumped out of nowhere and got her revenge squirting him with water giggling, Derek who was firstly shocked joined in the laughter, ''Ok, ok you got me, we're even now right?'' he smiled, ''of course'' she smiled sweetly looking up at him, he'd seen his mom look at his dad like this before, and every time she did he would kiss her, so he couldn't help himself he didn't know what it meant but it was what he was supposed to do right? He slowly leaned down and placed a quick, innocent peck on her lips and was rewarded with a smile, and they continued playing.**

**What Derek didn't know is that Fran witnessed the entire thing.**

Oh yes of course the kiss, the sweet, innocent child's play kiss that they had shared when they were younger, he wanted to remember **THAT** as his first kiss, bringing his hand up to his lips and tracing his finger over the bottom lip, closing his eyes in remembrance, banishing thoughts of his first kiss with his ex-girlfriend Tara, how she tried to seductively bite his lip and ended up drawing blood, she was a sloppy, messy kisser... oh how he regretted her, only a week into their relationship she found out that she was pregnant and tried to pass it off as Derek's, he was only 15 at the time and he knew damn well that it wasn't his baby as he'd never even slept with her, and he hadn't been with her long, it was confirmed though giving Fran peace of mind when the baby turned out to be as white as a snowflake with blue eyes, it was only proved around 8 months ago that the baby's father was in fact the school janitor at the time!

Smiling like an idiot thinking about the kiss that he and Penelope had shared he re-focused on his book, he needed the grades after all if he was ever going to make his dreams come true and find Penelope, and he needed to do that, they were destined to be together, and he couldn't break his promise to her, he'd promised her forever, and that is what she was going to get.


End file.
